It would not serve any purpose to dwell upon the general morigeration of Dryden, who, in this as in other respects, was “hurried down” the times in which he lived, to the leaders of politics and fashion, to the king’s ministers, favourites and mistresses, or upon the flatteries which, in dedications and elsewhere, he heaped upon the king himself, and upon his brother the duke. The attempts, however, which have been made to show that his pen was “venal”—in any sense beyond that of his having been paid for his compliments, or, at least, for a good many of them—may be said to have broken down; and the fact that he may have received payment from the king for writing The Medal does not prove that he was inspired by the expectation of personal profit when he first attacked the future medallist in Absalom and Achitophel.| 51| In undertaking the composition of this great satire, whether or not at the request of Charles II, Dryden had found his great literary opportunity; and, of this, he took advantage in a spirit far removed from that of either the hired bravos or the spiteful lampooners of his age. For this opportunity he had been unconsciously preparing himself as a dramatist; and it was in the nature of things, and in accordance with the responsiveness of his genius to the calls made upon it by time and circumstance, that, in the season of a great political crisis, he should have rapidly perceived his chance of decisively influencing public opinion by an exposure of the aims and methods of the party of revolution. This he proposed to accomplish, not by a poetic summary of the rights of the case, or by a sermon in verse on the sins of factiousness, corruption and treason, but by holding up to the times and their troubles, with no magisterial air or dictatorial gesture, a mirror in which, under a happily contrived disgvise, the true friends and the real foes of their king and country should be recognised. This was the “Varronian” form of satire afterwards commended by him, with a well warranted self-consciousness, as the species, mixing serious intent with pleasant manner, to which, among the ancients, several of Lucian’s Dialogues and, among the moderns, the Encomium Moriae of Erasmus belong. “Of the same kind is ‘Mother Hubberd’s Tale’; in Spenser, and (if it be not too vain to mention anything of my own) the poems of ‘Absalom’ and ‘MacFlecknoe.’” 78 | 52| The political question at issue, in the troubled times of which the names “whig” and “tory” still survive as speaking mementoes, was that of the succession of the Catholic heir to the throne, or of his exclusion in favour of some other claimant—perhaps the king’s son Monmouth, whom many believed legitimate (the Absalom of the poem). For many months, Shaftesbury, who, after serving and abandoning a succession of governments, had passed into opposition, had seemed to direct the storm. Two parliaments had been called in turn, and twice the Exclusion bill had been rejected by the lords. Then, as the whig leader seemed to have thrown all hesitation to the winds, and was either driving his party or being driven by it into extremities from which there was no return, a tremor of reaction ran through the land, the party round the king gathered confidence, and, evidence supposed sufficient to support the charge having been swept in, Shaftesbury was committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason. It was at this time of tension, while a similar charge was being actually pressed to the gallows against a humbler agent of faction (the “Protestant joiner” Stephen College), that Dryden’s great effort to work upon public opinion was made. Part I of Absalom and Achitophel, which seems to have been taken in hand quite early in 1681, was published on 17 November in that year. Shaftesbury, it is known, was then fearing for his life. A week later, in spite of all efforts to the contrary, the bill was ignored by the Middlesex...

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...﻿ Women in Absalom and Achitophel
John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel has long been established as a manifestation of the intricate fabric of patriarchal scheme of the Restoration monarchy. Generations of critics have found it as an extremely intriguing territory, swiftly trafficking with the contemporary socio-political notion of the king as the father of the nation and his celestial alignment with the God himself. This perspective locks Dryden’s text within the obvious interpretation of it as a literary tool to manifest the structures of the father-oriented monarchy. The woman-question, in this kind of critical thinking, becomes a vivid attempt on the poet’s part to wipe out the female voices and thereby underplaying female authority in a patriarchal society. This, indeed, becomes apparent when we focus upon the fact that in the text we hear no word uttered by any female subject; in fact, there are only three names of female characters mentioned in the text- Michal, Annabel, and Bathsheba and of course they are hardly the references to be proud of, for Michal’s soil is “ungrateful to the tillers care”, Annabel is almost a gift to Absalom from his father David and the king “Is grown in Bathsheba’s embraces old”. Apart from these three somewhat humiliating references there is no other mention of the women in Absalom and Achitophel. The poem surely aims at fashioning a...

...Absalom and Achitophel as a Political Satire
Satire is a form of literature, the proclaimed purpose of which is the reform of human weaknesses or vices through laughter or disgust. Satire is different from scolding and sheer abuse, though it is prompted by indignation. Its aim is generally constructive, and need not arise from cynicism or misanthropy. The satirist applies the test of certain ethical, intellectual and social standards to men and women, and determines their degree of criminality or culpability. Satire naturally has a wide range; it can involve an attack on the vices of an age, or the defects of an individual or the follies common to the very species of mankind.
Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark political satire by John Dryden. Dryden marks his satire with a concentrated and convincing poetic style. His satiric verse is majestic, what Pope calls: “The long majestic march and energy divine”. Critics have unanimously remarked on Dryden’s capacity to transform the trivial into the poetical; personal envy into the fury of imaginative creation. The obscure and the complicated is made clear and simple. All this transforming power is to be seen at the very beginning of Absalom and Achitophel. The state of ‘Israel’ is easy to understand and yet Dryden shows himself a master both of the Horatian and the Juvenalian styles of Satire. He is urbance witty devastating...

...john dryden absalom and achitophel summary
Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark poetic political satire by John Dryden. The poem exists in two parts. The first part, of 1681, is undoubtedly by Dryden. The second part, of 1682, was written by another hand, most likely Nahum Tate, except for a few passages---including attacks on Thomas Shadwell and Elkanah Settle as Og and Doeg---that Dryden wrote himself.
The poem is an allegory that uses the story of the rebellion of Absalom against King David as the basis for discussion of the background to the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), the Popish Plot (1678) and the Exclusion Crisis.
The story of Absalom's revolt is told in the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Bible (chapters 14 to 18). Absalom rebels against his father King David. The beautiful Absalom is distinguished by extraordinarily abundant hair, which is probably meant to symbolize his pride (2 Sam. 14.26). When David's renowned advisor, Ahitophel (Achitophel in the Vulgate) joins Absalom's rebellion, another advisor, Hushai, plots with David to pretend to defect and give Absalom advice that plays into David's hands. The result was that Absalom takes the advice of the double agent Hushai over the good advice of Ahitophel, who realizing that the rebellion is doomed to failure, goes home and hangs himself....

..."Both Swift and Dryden are masters of satire. Usually the satire is directed against an opponent/enemy or a political process. Using references from one poem from each writer, discuss how and why each uses satire and wit as a cutting sword."
John Dryden and Jonathan Swift became remarkable satirists through their ability to cleverly entwine political innuendos into their writings. There were mountains of governmental and religious issues occurring in the era of Dryden and Swift and these two witty men penned their standings into poetry and tales of adventure. Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel" is laced with his outlooks on England's situations. He uses numerous moments of humor to make fun of the religious situation between the Catholics and the Protestants and also the political drama after the death of King Charles. His descriptions of the similarities between England's issues and the many parallels to biblical problems are uncanny. Lines 433 through 438 are just on example of the satire Dryden weaved into his poem. "Would David have you thought his darling son?
What means he then, to alienate the crown?
The name of godly he may blush to bear:
'Tis after God's own heart to cheat his heir.
He to his brother gives supreme command
To you a legacy of barren land..." (890)
Dryden was exposing the hypocrisy of King Charles who claimed to be a pious man, yet he shunned his own son.
In "A Description of a City Shower", Swift incorporated hints...

...Absalom,
Absalom!
SETTING
The primary settings of Absalom , Absalom! alternate between
two days(one, in September 1909 in Jefferson, Mississippi, and the
other in January 1910 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) and much of
the nineteenth century, centered on Jefferson in the 1860s, the
years before, during and after the Civil War. This dual framework of
time and place sets up a contrast between the elusive historical
past and a present-day vantage (1909-10) from which to interpret
it. Furthermore, the contrast of the hot, dusty, wisteria-scented
Mississippi September of the novel’s present day (in the first half of
the novel) with the snowy, iron-cold Massachusetts January of the
second half also heightens the duality of the novel.
SETTING
Some of the novel’s past episodes range over settings
that include Virginia and Haiti in the early nineteenth-century,
the University of Mississippi in Oxford (40 miles from its
fictional counterpart, Jefferson), the exotic New Orleans world
of free people of color, and scattered scenes of Civil War
military campaigns. The central setting of Absalom , Absalom!
Is Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha County, though, and the novel
contributes an epic segment to Faulkner’s fictional saga. There is
even a link to the story of the Sartoris family. It is Absalom’s Thomas
Sutpen who replaced Col. Sartoris at the head of their Confederate
regiment in the Civil War....

...Tema N3 :
John Bunyan – (Religious background):
John Bunyan (28 November 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English Christian writer and preacher, who is well known for his book The Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan was born in 1628 to Thomas and Margaret Bunyan, in Bunyan's End in the parish of Elstow, Bedfordshire, England. John is recorded in the Elstow parish register as having been baptised, with his surname spelled 'Bunyan', on 30 November 1628. Though he became a non-conformist and member of an Independent church, and although he has been described both as a Baptist and as a Congregationalist, he himself preferred to be described simply as a Christian. He is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on August 30, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (US) on August 29. Some other Churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honour him on the day of his death (August 31) together with St. Aidan of Lindisfarne.
The Pilgrim’s Progress:
The Pilgrim's Progress from is a Christian allegory written in two parts by John Bunyan , the first part was published in London in 1678 and the second in 1684. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature. He conceived the work during his first period of imprisonment, and probably finished it during the second. The earliest edition in which the two parts combined in one volume came in 1728. A third part - falsely...

...Many of the novels we have read this semester contain prevailing themes that provide insight into American society. One of these themes that we have closely examined throughout the semester is a person’s right to love. Love is undoubtedly a powerful force in one’s life. As we have seen through our readings, however, this force is often obstructed by the need to conform to social standards. Whether or not a couple is ALLOWED to be in love says a lot about what is socially acceptable for that particular area and time period. Although love is technically a right given to all, American Literature shows how it is often denied by social standards and therefore ceases to exist.
William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! tells Rosa Coldfield’s version of how Thomas Sutpen was the demise of her and her family. As the story progresses, it becomes known that Thomas’s son, Henry, kills Charles Bon to prevent him from marrying his sister, Judith. One would infer that Henry’s reason for his desperate need to prevent their marriage was because Charles was their half-brother, and therefore their marriage would be considered incest. We come to find out, however, that this is not exactly the case. In Chapter 8, in response to whether or not Judith will marry Bon she says “Yes. I have decided. Brother or not, I have decided. I will. I will (283).” As the chapter progresses, however, Quentin and Shreve accept that “it’s the miscegenation, not the incest, which...

...reader. In William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom this point is undoubtedly present in the title of the book. A book title is part of the overall impression an author is creating about a book. It can set a tone and create an expectation. The title of a book should match the tone of the book and it attracts attention. At first glance one might wonder why Faulkner would give his book such a title, but by looking closely and examining the title it becomes explicitly clear how the title “Absalom, Absalom” directly correlates with the theme of the book.
The name Absalom is reference back to the bible. According to the bible Absalom was the third son of David, king of Israel. In the bible Absalom is describe to be a charming, beautiful, and loving young man who is a great favorite of his father and the people of the kingdom. It is stated in the bible that Absalom’s full sister Tamar was raped by Amnon, their half-brother and David's eldest son. Angered by the crime of his brother, Absalom eventually kill his brother Amnon and flees the kingdom, but later returned and rebelled against his father.
In Analyzing Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom one can clear see the correlation between Faulkner and Absalom’s story, However, more apparent is the similarities between Henry Sutpen and Absalom. Much like Absalom, Henry was...